Following the Red Road
by diamondlilyflower
Summary: Clary Greene was in Atlanta when the dead began walking. Separated from her family she instead takes shelter with another group of Atlanta survivors and when she goes on a run with Glenn and a small group into Atlanta for supplies how will she react when they find Rick Grimes and his eldest son Wesley? With their appearance everything will change, but who will survive?


Chapter One

Clarissa Greene was in Atlanta when the dead began walking.

"Caris?" Clary called, her boots echoing in the quiet studio apartment. "Ella? Zooey?"

She didn't get a response and swallowed, continuing deeper into her friend's home. The sofa bed was still pulled down as she passed it and the recliner was in a similar state, all three just as mussed up as they had been when Clary left.

Clary, Ella and Zooey lived in a small farming town quite a distance from Atlanta, Caris used to as well before she moved away when the girls were eleven. In the five years that had passed since then they hadn't lost contact and had repeatedly stayed with each other as they'd grown up, so the trio spending a week at Caris's place that she shared with her parents was not uncommon.

Quietly she moved deeper into the apartment, running her hand across the back of the sofa as she went through the living room. The front door had been wide open when she got back from the laundry room, the wall indented with the force it had swung back with, so as she passed the kitchen counter she pulled out the closest knife and held it aloft in front of herself.

"Clary?" The voice was quiet but she followed it eagerly until she came to the coat cupboard. The door was open a crack and she could see a wide pair of eyes looking back at her. When she opened it the full way a flurry of blonde hair shot out of it and pulled her into a tight embrace. "Thank God, thank God you're here."

"Zooey? Zooey, what happened?"

The light haired girl shook her head shakily and relinquished her hold on Clary and picked up her own knife. "Caris opened the door and it just, it just lunged for her."

Both girls quietened and then they heard it. A distinct gnawing sound, almost like a wild animal. "Zo, where's Ella and Caris?" Clary asked slowly, following the noise as it led her to Caris's bedroom door.

"They're in there." Zooey answered quietly. "Ella, she told me to lock the door. Caris was screaming and Ella was crying and they told me to lock the door with them and that, that thing in there. So I did and then they just kept screaming, until the screaming just stopped and…"

Clary turned around. "Zooey we need to go. Right now."

The blonde haired girl's eyebrows furrowed. "We can't just leave them in there, what if they're injured or-"

"That's exactly the problem. If they're injured there's nothing we can do. They'll come after us and they'll kill us."

"But they're Caris and Ella!"

"Not anymore. Zooey you've seen the news. If they were bitten then they're dead. If we try to help them then we're dead too. Do you understand? In this world an injury and they're dead. A display of kindness and we're dead. We've lost them. I will not lose you too."

Zooey was quiet for a moment. "Have you dealt with these things before?"

Clary shook her head. "I saw them. This morning when I left."

No more was said on the subject. The two girls packed up anything important into two backpacks. Spare clothes, water, unperishable foods, a handful of trinkets. They were hesitant to steal from Caris's parents without knowing whether they were coming back, but eventually they did, strapping the rolled up sleeping bags to the bottom of their bags.

They managed to fit a tent in Zooey's bag and a small survival pack of knives in Clary's. They each slipped one of the knives into their boots and then they headed to the door.

It was at that point the bedroom door collapsed.

There were three of _them. _The first one to find Clary and Zooey was an unknown male, dressed in simple workers clothes with an obvious bite mark on his neck. He approached the two teenagers and panic ensued. Zooey ran away from him with a cry of fright, backing herself up against the wall, hands shaking and breathing fast as an obvious slide into the throes of a panic attack gripped her.

Clary pulled the knife from her boot just as it reached her and she struck out at it, jamming the knife reluctantly between its ribs. There was no effect at all, it just kept thrashing, trying to find purchase on her and make her the next item on the menu.

She pulled the knife back, gagging at the foul stench that consumed her senses. Her thoughts spun out almost uncontrollably, _so the knife had no impact. Major organs irreparably harmed. What else? What else? The brain?_ The man gained ground on her and she stepped back, falling to the floor flat on her back, the dead man not far behind.

With one arm holding him as far away as possible by shoving his shoulder she used the other to frantically drive the knife with as much force as possible through his face and into his brain. Immediately he went limp and she rolled out from under him, letting him fall to the floor.

She laid on the floor, panting and gagging, but nothing came up. Her eyes burned with tears as she realised that her hands were coated with what she could only describe as guck. A watery, sticky, pale blood coloured liquid stuck to her hands, dripping onto the floor in thick droplets.

"Clary!"

She rocketed up from the floor, only to wish she hadn't. There, plodding towards her, dragging one leg behind herself and moaning slightly as she neared, was Ella. Her red hair was still in its pigtails and she was wearing her pyjamas despite the late hour in the day. Clary's throat burned as the vomit rose in her throat and she stopped still to try and swallow it and the tears back down. Ella's eyes were open, but glazed milky and she was covered in bruises and bite marks on her sickly skin, the biggest located on the juncture of her shoulder and neck.

"Clary, we need to run. If we go now they won't get to us and-"

"We can't leave them here like this. They're our friends, our people. They can't just stay like this."

Clary didn't throw up until three days later, mere hours before Glenn Rhee found them.

**So what do you guys think? I'd love to get some reviews to let me know where this could improve!**


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